Yes, I think it is safe to say that the USAF would have a significant advantage in the air.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

The food supply was worse in 42' then it was in 46'

Respectfully, one could say the same exact thing about the U.S.'s ability to remain in any conflict upon taking too many casualties...

Roosevelt would have a far more difficult time keeping a population happy and in control during a conflict thousands of miles away in a democracy then in Stalin would in Russia.

History has proved this to be the case.

All the best

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Sure... you're just saying that because of where you are from...

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Service

Just an aside for the B-36, one of these planes was used in the ANP (Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion). Yup a plane that flys off a nuclear reactor. Imagine if one of those crashed.

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Service

zing!.................and there you have the sumation of the Cold War

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"Logos, Philos, Arete"

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Don't forget those Luftwaffe aces and Wehrmacht tank aces. The Allies would use them and the war would be over in no time LOL.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

I remember reading a tidbit of SS General Meyer as a POW. He formulated a plan to his captors and wanted them to give him the permission to fight the Reds with a reorganized and retrained German division composed out of POWs under his leadership...

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Best World War 2 Comics

It's not 46 that's so critical it's 45. As far as the Soviets go my understanding is that one reason they demobilized so quickly was to use the troops to help harvest (and plant?) and move the the food available for harvest in that year as well as reduce the load on the transportation system. With the need to maintain troops in the field and without their labor in the fields at least according to some sources there would have been a famine in much of the Soviet Union. If they go to war vs the West they they are also looking at significantly more losses to transportation infrastructure which will take them quite a while to replace. Now much of western Europe isn't in any better circumstances as famine there was averted because the US and Britain could use the log system they had built up to distribute food from the Americas to Europe. In this scenario much less is going to be available.
One could but one would not necessarily be right. It would depend a lot on how the war started. If the West was the aggressor then it would take a pretty good salesman or something that really aggravated US and British citizens to get much backing. If the Soviets could reasonably be portrayed as the aggressor then I don't see any problems for a couple of years and that should be enough.
I'm not at all sure this would be the case. Especially once the western forces started advancing. They wouldn't be making the same mistakes that the Germans did after all.

My gut feeling is that this wouldn't be done and wouldn't be worthwhile but is certainly an area that could be debated. They'd probably be of more use as advisers/intel sources than in actual combat formations and then probably mid level officers would be of the most use.

Yeah that was the project that was cancelled in 1957 after a few years of testing to find out what kind of radiation problems would be involved for the crew and all the ground support personell. Really a wacky idea, but what the world didn't know about nuclear power in the fifties was staggering. Here is a pretty decent run-down on the NB-36 from the Joe Baugher site:

Convair NB-36H

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Happy Trails,
Clint.

LOL I agree. Too bad sarcasm doesn't go over well on the internet LOL.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Well I got some of it but on the other hand it's been raised a serious option so many times I thought I might as well deal with it. I personally don't see what would motivate a landser to return to the eastern front in this situation. Now if offered a training bilit in the US especially if any of his family can come along and he probably won't even need a plane to get there.

I figured I would mention it before some of our more pro-German members got around to it LOL.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Well, one thing is for certain, the Western nations wouldn't bother using ex-Luftwaffe aircraft. ..... Now the Russians..... could be they might start using some of these because they don't have anything better themselves.... Nightfighters, jets, high altitude fighters, to name a few.

While far from an expert on the matter, I am unaware of the USAF using any Jet fighters in 45'??

As for high altitude fighters, while a bit inferior to the P51 Mustangs, the Red Air Force did have fighters capable of reaching B-29's altitudes.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Flying? This list is for about September - October 1945 or about a month after the war ends.

The P-80 was available by late 1945 in squadron strength.
The P-59 was flying in several squadrons as a training aircraft (equipping the 412th FG out of Muroc Lake)
Bell's P-82 long range fighter was under flight test with two prototypes flying.
The Navy had the FH-1 Phantom prototypes flying and about to start carrier trials.
Ryan's FR-1 Fireball (mixed prop jet) was flying and in carrier trials
North American had the F-86 (plank wing or "jet Mustang") version of this fighter under development.
Republic had the F-84 Thunderjet under design and development.
Vought had the F6U Pirate in the design stage.
Curtiss was developing the F-87 Blackhawk jet nightfighter.
McDonnell Douglas had the F-88 Voodo in the early stages of design.
Lockheed had the F-90 (competing with the F-88) also in early design stages.

Just starting development were:

Douglas F3D Skyknight.
Grumman F9F Panther
among others.

The US had four jet engines in production at that point:

The Westinghouse I19 (1900 lbs thrust) being used on the FH 1 and F6U
General Electric had the I-14 (1400 lbs thrust) and I-16 (1600 lbs thrust) in production and the I-40 (4000 lbs of thrust) in testing.
Allis-Chambers was producing the Whittle W-2 as a license copy called the H-1.

There were also several turboprop prototypes and mixed turboprop / jet designs like the Consolidated XP-81 (flying) in design or development.

The only two fighters I know of that the Red Air Force had in 1945 that could have possibly intercepted a B-29 were the Bell P-63 and the MiG 7. I suspect from what little is published on the latter that it was pretty much a failure and saw little service.

Thank you T.A. you have once again shown your knowledge on the matter. I guess its due to a library which only a few possess and most aspire to obtain.

As for Jet fighters on the Soviet side, couldn't the MiG-9 be or even the mig 15 be counted in jet propulsion?

As for intercepting the B-29. Are you sure you are not confusing the mig 5 with the mig-3?

Also the Yak-1, La-5 and the p-39 had the capabilities as well?

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

The one thing that Russia no longer a had in 1945 was the security of distance. Unlike any other "Army" in the world, prior to 1945, the Allies had the ability to attack Russia from several sides.

The World got a lot smaller after WW2.

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"Logos, Philos, Arete"

An aerial campaign is one thing, an outright invasion is a whole other story. Even today, Russia's uses its forests as a deterrent.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

The P-39 was lacking the turbocharger it was originally designed to have. Thats the reason it was good only at low and medium altitudes

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

My point is that the Allies had pretty well perfected the construction of "Expeditionary" airfields using Perforated Steel Planks and Marsden Matting during the Pacific campaign. The Navy/ Marines were accustomed to flying from unimproved airstrips in forward areas, not to mention the development of "Close Air Support" combat techniques. This ability would make an attack through Vladivostock feasible and would also take advantage of the logistics system that was in place due to Lend Lease.

Russias forests would serve as an excellent source for Russian caskets and Allied Rifle stocks.

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"Logos, Philos, Arete"

I'm still trying to understand the ground rules in the "what if" game, so pardon my attempt at comment. However, I have to side with Sloniksp on this point. Regardless of the West's ability to dominate the Soviet's defenses at the time, invasion and occupation are an entirely different matter. Land mass, terrain and population would work against the invading force. Reminds me of the "Invasion of the US" thread. Beating the Soviets back to their borders is one thing; invasion/occupation is an entirely different matter, though that may go beyond the intended scope of this thread.

The other aspect of this, already touched on earlier, is the willingness of the Western allies to continue on with war. I can't quote any scholarly sources, but my understanding of the times certainly suggests the US was "done". Truly the country could not have been more mobilized for war and apparently thriving economically because of it. However, there were very clear objectives which were realized once Germany and Japan were defeated and the populace was war weary. No doubt they would have gone on as long as necessary to realize the original objectives, but a new reason to continue war would have been nearly unsellable, absent a Soviet attack of magnitude, etc.

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"I do not have to tell you who won the war. You know, the artillery did." - Gen. George S. Patton
"In 9 months and 3 days of combat on the Continent the 949th FA Bn had fired 51,000 rounds of ammunition, approximately 2,550 tons." - Unit History

I meant the Mig 7. The MiG 9 and Yak 15 both flew on what were essentially cleaned up versions of the Jumo 004 and BMW 003 engines. None of these flew until mid 46 mainly due to having to move the Junkers Dessau plant to Russia and restart production. The MiG 15 and La 150 series rely on the RR Nene engine for their effectiveness. Without that British product the Russians are stuck with German wartime technology and dependent on German engineers for jet design. The somewhat heavy and bulky Henkel 011 engine might have come available giving the Russians something with a bit more "poke" but it would have been less than the engines the West was using.

Of the three listed Yak 1, La 5 and P 39 or later Yak 3, 9, La 7 none had very good performance over about 16,000 feet. All suffered severe drops in performance above that altitude. It was simply none of these aircraft was optimized for high altitude combat. The P-39 struggled to reach 20,000 feet. The Soviet fighters likewise might have managed 25,000 feet after a prolonged climb but even after reaching those heights they would have had trouble intercepting a B-17 or 24 let alone the faster and higher flying B-29.

So, in a 1946 scenario the Russians would have been able to get a jet or two into the air pretty quickly but only on the Jumo 004 engine. That would have made their jets considerably less capable than the ones the West was using in terms of efficency and reliability.
These early jets weren't exactly stellar performers either.

The Yak 15 only made 466 mph on a single Jumo 004. The Yak 17 was little better being essentially a tricycle landing gear 15. The MiG 9 had similar performance (a bit over 500 mph).
It isn't until the Russians have copies of the RR Dewent and Nene that they get engines that can match the West. Without these they are hit.

Well I think the US would have forged ahead if need be. There were already troops in the pipeline and the US had the technological advantage and the logistics chain. It is very conceivable that Hammerin' Hank would have given the green light for an Atomic solution. I think that is the only thing that kept the Russians in check.

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"Logos, Philos, Arete"